CocoaPuffBrown wrote:Since we are on the subject of salads. Does anyone have a killer vinaigrette recipe?

I don't have a recipe, but I love using either the mango or raspberry vinegar from Vom Fass on University Avenue. I am not a huge salad fan, but I love the tahu goreng with organic greens and tofu from the Kakilima cart on Library Mall. It's not called a salad, but it looks like one.

okiebp wrote:I never understood the reasoning behind paying $9 for a salad.

The price breakdown for that salad goes something like this:

$2.00 for the ingredients$1.25 for the table rental$0.75 staffs labor charge – she is cute, she's worth it$1.00 cost to maintain the restaurant's cuteness factor. A necessity in order to attract people with large amounts of expendable income. Part of the reason people who are willing to pay $9.00 for a salad is its symbolic signal of status. They aren't here to eat a salad, they are here to eat a $9.00 salad with other status oriented people. *They aren't here to eat amongst those who are unwilling or unable to spend that kind of money on lettuce and tomatoes.*$4.00 profit

The restaurant is a business, not a social advocacy front. Even though they will market that to those who want to hear they are eating their way to saving *those they aren't interested in being around in the first place.*

Usually what you will here from the people who willingly spend this kind of money on a prepared salad is "they are supporting their community." I guess part of that profit margin holds a guilt premium or something. If you bought all the same ingredients from the COOP, who in turn got their produce from some guy in Cambridge WI (maybe lettuce from Cambridge MA is more important?) and made the salad yourself, I guess that's not community oriented enough.

Best salad in Madison. It's nearly a meal in itself even with the downsized, "single serving" portions they dish up now. I once ate a whole salad, the larger version, at the original location and my jaw hurt the next day from the exercise. The chef said I wouldn't have to eat vegetables for a week.

The dressing is also for sale by the bottle, I think at all three locations.

And as much as I trash the red sauce and ambiance inside Paisan's, the Porta salad, and maybe it's just the memories, hits the spot. A Porta salad, a glass of wine and sit out on deck overlooking the lake - summer is great in Madison.